MINISTRY OF SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM

CONSTRUCTION Independence - Freedom - Happiness

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No. 07/2019/TT-BXD Hanoi, November 7, 2019
 

CIRCULAR

AMENDING, SUPPLEMENTING AND REPLACING A NUMBER OF REGULATIONS OF

CIRCULAR NO. 03/2016/TT-BXD DATED MARCH 10, 2016 OF MINISTER OF
CONSTRUCTION REGULATING CLASSIFICATION OF CONSTRUCTION WORKS, AND
INSTRUCTIONS FOR APPLICATION OF THESE REGULATIONS TO INVESTMENT AND
CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES 

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP dated May 12, 2015 on construction works
quality management and maintenance;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 59/2015/ND-CP dated June 18, 2015 on management of
investment and construction projects (hereinafter referred to as Decree No. 59/2015/ND-CP);

Pursuant to the Decree No. 42/2017/ND-CP dated April 5, 2017 on amendments and supplements to a
number of Articles of the Decree No. 59/2015/ND-CP;

Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 81/2017/ND-CP dated July 17, 2017, defining the functions,
tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Construction;

Upon the request of the Director of the Construction Quality Inspectorate,

The Minister of Construction hereby promulgates the Circular amending, supplementing and replacing
a number of articles of the Circular No. 03/2016/TT-BXD dated March 10, 2016 of the Minister of
Construction regulating classification of construction works, and instructions for application of these
regulations to investment and construction activities. 

Article 1. Amending, supplementing and replacing a number of regulations of the Circular No.
03/2016/TT-BXD dated March 10, 2016 of the Minister of Construction regulating classification
of construction works, and instructions for application of these regulations to investment and
construction activities (hereinafter referred to as Circular No. 03/2016/TT-BXD).

1. Placing Article 1a after Article 1 as follows:

“Article 1a. Interpretation

a) Detached home refers to a residential building erected on a separate land lot under the legal
ownership of an organization, family or person, including villas, terraced houses and independent
houses.
b) Apartment building refers to a building comprising at least 2 stories, a large number of apartments,
shared walkways and stairs, individually or commonly owned spaces and commonly used
infrastructure facilities for families, persons and entities.

c) Multifunctional project (or mixed-use project) refers to a building serving various functions
(Example: a building designed as an apartment building, hotel and office is considered a
multifunctional project). 

d) Elevation of a house, construction work or structure refers to the height vertically measured from the
ground surface elevation to the top of a building, construction work or architectural structure. As for
construction works with different ground surface elevations, the lowest ground surface elevation is
used. Method of determining the height of a building, construction work or architectural structure in
several particular cases shall be regulated in Appendix 2 to the Circular No. 03/2016/TT-BXD”.

dd) Story above the ground level refers to a floor of which elevation is higher than or equal to the
elevation of the ground surface on which a construction work is built according to the approved
planning.

e) Basement (or underground floor) refers to a floor of which more than a half is below the surface of
the ground on which a building is erected according to the approved planning scheme.

g) Half/semi-basement (or half or semi-underground floor) refers to a floor of which a half is above or
equal to the surface of the ground on which a building is erected according to the approved planning
scheme.

h) Technical floor refers to a story where engineering equipment is placed in a building.  Technical
floor may be a basement, half basement, attic or any floor of a building.

i) Attic refers to a floor inside a pitched roof space of which the entire or part of vertical sides is formed
by pitched or folded roof surfaces, and vertical wall (if any) is restricted to 1.5 m in height from the
floor level.  

k) The number of stories in a building (or construction work) includes all of floors above the ground
level (including technical floor or loft), half/semi-basement, exclusive of the attic.

In a building, a loft is not counted as a story of the building only when the loft is used for covering a
staircase or elevator shaft, or hiding built-in equipment (if any), or is used as an intermediate space to
reach the roof and serve rescue purposes, and makes up 30% at maximum of the dimensional area of
the roof.  

With respect to a detached building, a mezzanine shall not be counted as a story of that building if the
floor area of such mezzanine is not greater than 65% of the building area of the story underneath.

With respect to houses, home-type structures or buildings with multiple stories built on floor levels
(exclusive of detached residential houses), mezzanines are not counted as stories thereof only when
they are designed for use as technical spaces (e.g. technical floor levels at the beds of swimming pools,
floor levels where generators are placed or other equipment), cover no more than 10% of the building
area of the story underneath, but less than 300 m2.
In a building project, only one mezzanine, which is not counted as a story of the project, is allowed.

2. Amending, supplementing and replacing regulations laid down in Appendix 1 “Classification of

construction works based on capacity or importance levels” to the Circular No. 03/2016/TT-BXD
according to Appendix I hereto.

3. Amending and supplementing regulations laid down in Appendix 2 “Classification of construction

works based on structural measurement” to the Circular No. 03/2016/TT-BXD according to Appendix
II hereto.

4. Repealing point d of section 2 in the Notes of Chart 2 in the Appendix 2 "Classification of

construction works based on structural measurement” in the Circular No. 03/2016/TT-BXD.

5. Replacing Section 3.5 in the Appendix 3 “Examples of determination of classes of construction

works" in the Circular No. 03/2016/TT-BXD by Section 3.5 in the Appendix III hereto.

Article 2. Transitional provisions

1. Classifications of construction works belonging to investment and construction projects approved

before the entry into force of this Circular shall be determined according to laws remaining in effect on
the date of grant of approval.

2. With respect to construction works whose construction designs are adjusted after the entry into force
of this Circular,

a) if such adjustments do not entail any change in capacity and structural measurement as prescribed
herein, classifications thereof shall be determined according to laws remaining in effect on the date of
grant of approval;

b) if such adjustments entail any change in capacity and structural measurement as prescribed herein,
classifications thereof shall be determined according to Article 1 herein;

Article 3. Entry into force

1. This Circular shall enter in force on January 1, 2020.

2. In the course of implementing this Circular, if there is any difficulty likely to arise, persons and
entities may send feedbacks to the Ministry of Construction to seek its decision./.

  PP. MINISTER
DEPUTY MINISTER

Le Quang Hung
 

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